page_title: Bambang Soegeng
section_title: Post-1949 military career
hierarchical_section_title: Bambang Soegeng / Career / Post-1949 military career
caption_attribution_description: English: Portrait of military commander Bambang Sugeng
context_page_description: Bambang Soegeng was an Indonesian military officer and diplomat. He was the Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Army between 1952 and 1955, and later served in ambassadorial offices to the Holy See, Japan, and Brazil.
  Soegeng originated from Magelang and completed high school education before dropping out. He worked as a civil servant for some time, and joined the PETA military organization during the Japanese occupation of the Dutch East Indies, rising to become a battalion commander. After the proclamation of Indonesian independence, he organized a unit in the nascent BKR and later rose to the rank of a divisional commander, approving the General Offensive of 1 March 1949. He became the military commander for East Java before becoming Army Chief of Staff in 1952, during a period of tension between the civilian government and the army. He resigned in 1955, and during his ensuing diplomatic career attempted to garner support for Indonesia in the West New Guinea dispute.
context_section_description: After the revolution concluded, Soegeng became the military commander for Kodam V/Brawijaya which covered East Java, between June 1950 and October 1952. During the 17 October affair in 1952, Soegeng was on sick leave, and a power struggle occurred between his subordinates which resulted in the temporary acting commander, Lt. Col. Suwondho, being arrested and dismissed. Soegeng, who was at the time still inactive yet considered a politically moderate and competent officer, was appointed acting Chief of Staff of the Indonesian Army on 15 December 1952 replacing Abdul Haris Nasution. Due to his illness during the coup attempt, he was seen as uninvolved in the incident, and he was considered as an acceptable compromise replacement for Nasution. He was a Major General at the time of his appointment.
  The early weeks of his tenure saw a clash with the politicians in Jakarta, when he attempted to appoint Joop Warouw as the regional commander for East Indonesia. This decision, upheld by the Wilopo Cabinet, caused the resignation of its Defence Minister Hamengkubuwono IX. The Cabinet then reversed its stance in order to prevent further ministerial resignations and attempted to appoint another officer, Col. Sadikin, but this was countered by Soegeng also threatening to resign. Soegeng's resignation was rejected, and Sadikin did not indicate readiness for this appointment, resulting in Warouw maintaining his post without immediate further resignations. Soegeng was considered a sympathizer of the Indonesian National Party. Even with Soegeng's appointment, the East Java division was still dissatisfied, and in one occasion when Soegeng accompanied Wilopo on a trip to the Kodam's headquarters, they were greeted by tanks instead of the leaders and an empty headquarter office.
  Soegeng would once again threaten to resign in December 1953, when the Defense Minister at the time Iwa Kusumasumantri made several controversial appointments to the Army General Staff. Several of the territorial commanders responded to Soegeng's threat by demanding Iwa's resignation, but they were eventually convinced to back down and Soegeng withdrew his resignation once more, accepting the new appointees. Aside from these issues, Soegeng's time as Chief of Staff also saw the initiation of the numerical registration of army soldiers, and Soegeng himself was registered with the code 10001.
  In February 1955, Soegeng attended a large conference of Army leaders and signed off the "Yogyakarta Charter", which called for unity in the Army in response to the split following the 17 October affair. Shortly afterwards, however, Soegeng submitted his third resignation on 2 May, which was accepted after nine days. Soegeng had felt that he was unable to implement the resolutions in the charter, furthered by the lack of government response to the demands.
caption: Soegeng in 1952
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot A560", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2012:07:19 07:41:32", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "216", "Image XPKeywords": "[79, 0, 114, 0, 105, 0, 103, 0, 105, 0, 110, 0, 97, 0, 108, 0, 0, 0]", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1152", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6480", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/60", "EXIF FNumber": "13/5", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "80", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2012:07:16 10:55:23", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2012:07:16 10:55:23", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "189/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "11/4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "11/4", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash fired, compulsory flash mode, red-eye reduction mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "29/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "0", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "0", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "3072", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "2304", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1016", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "40960/3", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "2304000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}